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Health Workforce—Data and Statistics

National and sub-national data on the health workforce is a pre-requisite for evidence-informed policy. Many countries and sub-national authorities face challenges in reporting and publishing a full account of the HRH situation; the information is often dispersed across institutions, with incomparable infrastructure and capacity constraints (especially in data collection and utilization). Amid these challenges future health and social protection systems are evolving, demanding new, intelligent responses to drive efficiency and improve outcomes.

Global Health Workforce Statistics – 2013 update

Statistics on the number and density of health workers for 194 WHO Member States. The main (aggregated) data set provides standardized information on nine occupational categories of human resources for health (HRH). Depending on data availability and the organization of the national health system, disaggregated information may further be provided for up to 18 occupational categories, as well as on the distribution of HRH by age, sex and place of work (urban/rural).